GAZA STRIP — Nour Abu Samaan, a one-year-old girl who was the sole survivor of an Israeli missile strike on al-Nasr Children's Hospital in North Gaza, remains severely disabled after inhaling toxic gases during the October 8, 2023 attack. Born on October 7, 2023, she was diagnosed by doctors with movement paralysis and severe stiffness in her limbs, which physicians describe as more debilitating than partial paralysis.

Israeli missiles struck near the infant and her mother, Samar Hammad, on October 8, 2023, one day after Nour's birth. "My daughter suddenly choked in my hands," Hammad said. "Her colour turned blue, her eyes rolled back, and she lost all movement."

Hammad spent a month in the intensive care unit at al-Nasr Children's Hospital with her daughter before evacuating her just before the facility was bombed. Nour was the sole survivor of the attack, which included the intensive care unit. After Israeli forces stormed the hospital, life-support systems were disconnected from premature babies left behind, and their decomposed bodies were discovered on their beds days later.

One year on, the child's family continues to care for her at home. "We have tried repeatedly to make her sit, but she cannot," Othman Abu Samaan said.

Officials said 1,200 children in Gaza suffer from spinal cord injuries and paralysis resulting from Israeli attacks, and approximately 1,000 children have undergone amputations or suffered severe permanent scarring. Gaza's Ministry of Health recorded 322 cases of congenital defects in 2025, and 457 infants died in their first week of life that year. More than 4,000 women in Gaza had premature deliveries in 2025, officials said. Birth rates fell by 38 percent in 2024 and by 13 percent in 2025, while the population growth rate in the Gaza Strip turned negative at -1.3 percent.

Approximately 4,000 children in Gaza require urgent medical treatment abroad, and more than 20,000 patients and wounded people are waiting to travel for care, officials said. Israel has imposed restrictions on movement through the Rafah crossing. Since the crossing partially reopened in February 2026, only 154 children have left Gaza for medical treatment.

"Every day the Rafah crossing remains closed, we lose lives," said Zaher al-Waheidi, head of the Information Unit. "More than 470 children have already died while waiting for a chance to be saved," he said.